What I Want from Weekly Shonen Champion

I noticed that over the years of keeping this blog I had never written I piece on what sort of stuff I want from Weekly Shonen Champion. I realise that a magazine will never really appease me fully but over the years I have grown to hope for changes in Champion especially as my magazine losses appeal to me rapidly over the last few years. So I will indulge myself a bit in this piece. 

The spin of Mairimashita! Iruma is also a great sellers for Akita Shoten but its sales are not necessarily moved by its presence in the magazine. The Iruma namesake is just one factor for its popularity, the other and bigger factor is the presence of the Wareware Shuuyaku group. This group of youtubers have a large dedicated fanbase which has even made their own isekai manga reasonably successful.One of the first things that I want to see is a removal of spin off series.  For instance Worst Gaiden Guriko is a spin off Worst a series that originally was serialised in Monthly Shonen Champion. It has filled a space of yankee series in Champion that has been left unfulfilled since Gmen ended and it sales are reasonable. These sales, however, are not moved by the series itself but by its association with Worst and this is shown by how others spin off from Worst in other magazines are able to sell just as well. 

Weekly Shonen Champion - Akita Shoten

Hence, these series could easily be placed elsewhere else and they would still sell well. So, they are simply occupying space that I feel would be better filled by an original series. An important reason for this is because Weekly Shonen Champion is one of the biggest magazine for Akita Shoten and wasting a potential space that could be filled with an original hit is not a good thing in the long run. 

Aside from the spin off works, the magazine has mellowed out a lot over the last few years. By this I mean the magazine has become lighter with more upbeat series especially with the recent addition from webseries such 'A Girl Who Cant Speak...' and 'Meika-san...' which are more simple upbeat series. This became a problem for me because the magazine was never fully dominated by a sort of series, it had yankee, sports, gags and some other genres but that dominance of upbeat series made me miss something with a bit more atmosphere like BEASTARS in its early days. The popularity of BEASTARS did not make them move one inch towards more series like it, in fact they have probably moved to more upbeat works probably due to the influence of Iruma-kun. 

Weekly Shonen Champion - Akita Shoten

I want to see this reversed even if all evidence goes against it, I would like to see unusual series like BEASTARS that do not necessarily have their genre singularly defined. Series like this that stand out from the usual in shonen magazines are in themselves a good thing in minor magazine like champion because their size should give space for experimental series that audiences could not find elsewhere A series like AI no Idenshi or BEASTARS would never be serialised in a shonen magazine but Champion made it work and both were popular works, the latter a lot more. However, one of the problems of this is that there is probably a limited amount of talented authors that can match those two. So, it might not always work as series form the get go and this leads to my next point nicely. 

AI no Idenshi - Yamada Kyuri, Akita Shoten

Short series are a great way to gauge interest of readers in a series and at the same time develop authors. Many hit series from champion originated as short series such as Mitsudomoe, Shinryaku! Ika Musume, Furutto on Thursday and BEASTARS. Part of this originates from how almost all series that are cancelled usually fail to grasp people attention in the first few chapters and it is hard to recover from that. Short series gives the chance to see if a series will work or not by being a test run of the first few chapters the most important for any manga to grab readers. This is exactly what the last head editor Sawa did but I would like to take it up a notch which would mean there would be less new series starting but many more short series with popular ones being made into official serialisation. Short series would became a key part of the magazine way to find new hit. It would be more effective than simply starting a new serialisation, since readers input would have more weight and in the end they are the ones that the magazine is trying to satisfy. 

BEAST COMPLEX- Itagaki Paru, Akita Shoten

In addition, short series of three chapters allow more time for newbies to explore their ideas. short series are a great way for newbies e to test themselves, since they can not necessarily rely on just a simple one off story but instead have to build and pace a wider story, in very few chapters. For instance, Hamayan one-shot Madoromi was a very simple and self contained story that was good, whilst his short series required a lot more of him, since he had to shape a story that was well short but that felt naturally paced and he paced his test with flying colours.We just need more of that and this year Champion has had more short series than it had in its last few years combined. 

To be continued - First I want to talk about Sunday though.

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Manga in Danger - Kurobane Hakusho

Introducing a new segment focusing on seeries in danger - first of we have Kurobane Hakusho by Uchida Kouhei from Weekly Shonen Champion.

Kurobane Hakusho began a few weeks ago and whilst it does not seem to have picked up a lot of steam there is an aspect of the series that appealed to me. 

Copyright - Uchida Kohei and Akita Shoten

First, though let me tell what Kurobane Hakusho is about. The series features Kurobane, the school council president at middle school and he wants to devote himself to resolving any issues student have.  When I first read the synopsis of this series I believed it was going to a school life manga with dramatic elements here and there but it would still be mostly a light hearted story. 

These expectations were betrayed when the series began however instead proved to be focused a lot more on the school drama aspect through exploring many things such as bullying, jealousy, hate on social media and the likes that students face. The main character seeks to resolve these issues in other to guarantee everyone at school is happy. It is not exactly the focus on these aspect that make the series dramatic but how it dramatises them through the art by using a lot of black inking and more impactful panels. These panels good because it allows the artist to show the strength of his art but also its ability to plays well in setting the mood. 

Copyright - Uchida Kohei and Akita Shoten

Another aspect that stands out is his storytelling. The first chapter for instance only teased many aspects of the story such as the main character ability and his past, it did not give away too much information for instance, the main characters ability was shown in use but it was not exactly explained and only certain hints were given. In this sense Kurobane Hakusho has a more active story telling that expects more from the reader, even if the hints and the how the story unfolds can lead to obvious developments. However, I can still appreciate shonen stories that can hold themselves back from simply using passive forms of story telling, and in this case Uchida Kouhei manages to use his art alongside the narrative. 

Copyright - Uchida Kohei and Akita Shoten

I believe that the author missed an opportunity though. This setting is too simplistic and overused and the 'special' touch he added is a weak. No one expect the issues from school life to be exactly new but the way its dealt whilst it is impactful in regards to art, it does not stroke emotions so it feels weak and the pay off is never quite satisfying because the author is not great at portraying lighter moments like something like Mairimashita! Iruma-kun. This comparison is valid because these series in a sense are like polar opposites whilst Iruma-san has a dark set up it is used as gag and it is light hearted series with minor elements of drama whilst Kurobane Hakusho at first seems light hearted but it is a serious series maybe even too serious, it is weak at balancing lighter elements from serious ones. 

This is why I believe this series might struggle to garner anyone attention whilst I recognise his skill at telling the story, the story itself is not strong enough to draw eyes and the art by itself will not carry it. In part because whilst shonen works live of their art most have stylistic appeals and Uchida Kouhei's art whilst good it does not have its own style.

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Heaven's Design Team and How to be Educational and Entertaining.

Heaven's Design Team - Kodansha USA

Heaven's Design Team stands out initially with quirky setting in which god has outsourced the creation of animals to a  group of designers. This setting has many uses but it is perfect because it serves as a means to end for the author to do what he really wants to do with the series and that is explore the intricacies of the natural world. Consequently, every chapter has focus on a few animals, so it has no particular overarching story and the focus is specifically on the particularities of animals. 

The way god gives a certain comment of what he wants from the designers, in this context represents a way the author builds every chapter to have elements of surprise as well as comedy since the vague requests by god are transformed through various experimentation and prototypes until they somehow reach the shape of animals that actually exist. The reader throughout the chapter is kept guessing on what they could possibly be building from their propositions and various ideas until it comes to you. This component makes the series quite engaging as the reader actively follows the narrative and when the conclusion it reached, it is rather satisfying.

Heaven's Design Team - Example of prototype - Heaven's Design Team Anime Commitee

The series because of this exploration of the real natural world has a lot of educational value. In a way it is similar to Cells At Work, another work with an education edge. Heaven's Design Team differs in that it focuses not on the inside workings of the human body but on animals. For people like that have an interest in the natural world there is a lot in this series to enjoy.

The anime managed to capture the original work essence incredibly well. Apart from a few re arrangements in the chronology of the manga chapters, the anime was a 1 to 1 adaptation of the manga. It even added breaks at the middle of the anime to talk more in detail about the animal featured in the episode, a feature the manga also does at the end of every chapter. 

There is not much to complain here. Heaven's Design Team is an entertaining and educational manga which became a likewise a entertaining and educational anime. It is a series I would recommend to anyone even if they do necessarily have any interest in anime as long as they are interested in learning about animals and biomes.